Need some TV ideas for old dish

sat matt

Hi folks,

I'm hoping to do a bit of a TV overhaul and make some use of an old dish in the process. I have a satellite dish mounted since the days when Three were giving out satellite broadband through the government scheme. It's a large ~1 meter plastic dish with a quality and sturdy galvanised mount and was for broadband service from the older Eutelsat Tooway constellation (not the newer KA-SAT, it's predecessor... the name escapes me). It's facing approx SE and I can go about 90d each direction from it's current mounting position

At the moment all I have TV wise is a good Saorview signal running from an aerial into a cheap and cheerful Synaps THD-2856+ tuner. There's no broadband in the area other than satellite so using newer IPTV, VoD or other such services isn't an option.

My knowledge around all things TV and sat is fairly limited but I have read up briefly on multi-tuner STB's which can take say Saorview on an aerial feed and Freeview on a sat feed. To add too, I've seen multi-LNB's on the go in places for receiving multiple sats with the one dish and I recall that there was even a specific bracket for the above Tooway system which mounted a few TV LNB's above the broadband LNB (more for mainland EU customers)


I suppose what I'm looking for is a multi-tuner box which can take my exiting aerial feed and then 1 or more sat feeds. As for the multi-LNB's on one dish, I understand it all depends on what sats your pointing at initially so perhaps there's no possible use for additional LNB's when pointing for Freeview but I'd be interested in hearing what's possible or what's popular with folks here. I don't mind popping up another dish either if there's something to be got on it


Can anyone suggest either a suitable STB for this configuration or perhaps throw up a few options to make use of the sat dish. There's no budget at the moment as I've little clue as to what a good STB or LNB costs. I don't care too much for software features of the box either as it will have very poor broadband connectivity so chances are I won't be able to make use of snazzy features anyway. Some sort of scheduled recording would be cool I suppose... if that's even a thing!



Thanks

Gerry Wicklow

Hi and welcome to Boards. First off be careful of terminology. FreeView refers to the UK version of terrestrial Tv only available near the border or parts of the East coast. This could easily fool you into buying the wrong box. For free satellite look for Free-To-Air (FTA) or FreeSat. FreeSat is branded software on some boxes that gives a 7day EPG, auto retuning, 'Red Button' functions and fancy teletext. Boxes that combine terrestrial and satellite into one unit are called 'combo' boxes. There is no such thing as a branded FreeSat combo box but more sophisticated combo boxes can mimic most FreeSat functions. Basic FTA boxes only give now/next EPGs.
If you want to be able to record one satellite channel while watching another you must have a box with 2 satellite tuners and 2 cables from either a dual or quad output LNB. Quads are the commonest these days which allows you to feed other rooms at a later date.
Dishpointer will let you check exactly what satellites are available from your address. The usual choice for FTA are:-
28.2°E Astra for the UK channels, (list of FTA UK channels)
19°E for mainly German Tv
13°E for mainly Polish and Spanish Tv.
Note in satellite terms 28.2°E refers to East of South or 151.8 on a compass.

I'm not familiar with the dish you mention, so I don't know if it's adaptable. Others may know more about them. Either way a new dish is fairly cheap.

sat matt

Thanks Gerry for the great info

I did mean to ask re. the UK terminology in my first post but yes, it is indeed Freesat I'm looking for. Am I correct in saying that Freesat is what you get on a Sky box without a package... as in it's the same channel selection? I've taken a quick browse through the channel list you linked to and I do recognise some listings from my days with a non-registered Sky box

Good info on the LNB's and tuner requirements too. A quad option sounds good even if just for future proofing. I've quickly googled here and I'm surprised how cheap they are

As for the dish I mentioned... there's no rule that I must use it. Although considering it's professionaly mounted on a heavy galvanised mount and plus that it's so damn big, I just figured that it would make a great dish for TV! Of course, I'm making another uneducated assumption here that a dish is a dish and any old dish will work for TV reception

I'll size it up tomorrow and see how I might go about removing the old broadband LNB and electronics panel. Pointing it at 28.2°E suits the current mounting position very well

I just might find a way out of the dreaded Christmas season yet

Gerry Wicklow

The free channels you get on an out of sub Sky box are only a selection of the FTA channels up there. FreeSat, out of sub Sky boxes and FTA boxes all use the same signals from the Astra 28.2E satellites. FreeSat is effectively only software that makes some boxes more user friendly/plug and play. For similar features, and a lot more besides, you could consider a linux (enigma) based combo box. Unlike a FreeSat box they need a bit of know-how but are well worth the effort after the initial steep learning curve. There are several threads in the terrestrial forum about them.
Be warned:- messing with FTA satellite is VERY addictive

sat matt

Thanks again Gerry

I'll try this a third time: it's free-to-air satellite I'm interested in... not Freeview... not Freesat! I think I have the terminology nailed now

I'll take a read of the terrestrial threads tomorrow and browse around for a good box with a few tuners and Saorview compatable (I recall much talk of something MPEG or MHEG compatability back when it lauched). I'm quite comfortable in Linux having dabbled in it for some time now and I've spent what seems a lifetime neck deep in computer systems, software platforms, networks and cabling so I'll happily take the pain of taming a complex STB if it means a better end user experience

I'll admit to watching very, very little TV so it's more a small side project and some further learning I'm looking for. It will be put to good use in the homeplace by the younger siblings and nephews though. Considering more and more homes now are opting for poor quality Android boxes pumping out illegible garbage... it's certainly good to see that there remains an active community dabbling with the airwaves. I'll quite happily jump in

Johnboy1951

sat matt wrote: »

Thanks again Gerry

I'll try this a third time: it's free-to-air satellite I'm interested in... not Freeview... not Freesat! I think I have the terminology nailed now

I'll take a read of the terrestrial threads tomorrow and browse around for a good box with a few tuners and Saorview compatable (I recall much talk of something MPEG or MHEG compatability back when it lauched). I'm quite comfortable in Linux having dabbled in it for some time now and I've spent what seems a lifetime neck deep in computer systems, software platforms, networks and cabling so I'll happily take the pain of taming a complex STB if it means a better end user experience

I'll admit to watching very, very little TV so it's more a small side project and some further learning I'm looking for. It will be put to good use in the homeplace by the younger siblings and nephews though. Considering more and more homes now are opting for poor quality Android boxes pumping out illegible garbage... it's certainly good to see that there remains an active community dabbling with the airwaves. I'll quite happily jump in

Considering the above, there are other items you might wish to explore.

There are LNBs available which will take a Terrestrial aerial input and combine it with the Sat signal on all four outputs.
You can then split the two signals again at the TV points.

Another option you might like to consider is build yourself a tuner box, run free software on it, and get much more versatility than any commercial STB, including making the tuners available to all LAN connected devices.

There are also available LNBs with tuners built in. These are powered by PoE and only require the one Cat6 cable. Seek out Sat>IP information and LNBs with such capabilities.

There are now also flat panel receivers for Sat which have Sat>IP tuners built in. They might also interest you. Search for Selfsat for more info.

You are on a fun journey so check out as many roads as possible before making a decision

Gerry Wicklow

sat matt wrote: »

.... I'm quite comfortable in Linux having dabbled in it for some time now and I've spent what seems a lifetime neck deep in computer systems, software platforms, networks and cabling so I'll happily take the pain of taming a complex STB if it means a better end user experience

I'll admit to watching very, very little TV so it's more a small side project and some further learning I'm looking for. ... it's certainly good to see that there remains an active community dabbling with the airwaves. I'll quite happily jump in

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

.....You are on a fun journey so check out as many roads as possible before making a decision

For those of us of a techie nature you may find you spend more time playing with the box rather than "watching the box"